President's Message

December 2021

Hello Maryland ACC Colleagues!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I wanted to wish everyone a wonderful Holiday season. Please be safe and be well and enjoy this time with your loved ones. Hope this is a time for reflection, rejuvenation, and appreciation for all!

I wanted to give an update on our Mid-Atlantic Capital Cardiology Symposium (MACCS) and a shout out to Mid-Atlantic Chapter Governors, Doctors Evan Ownby of VA, Wasif Qureshi of DE, and Gaby Weissman of DC as well as Chapter Executive Jennifer Ray Beckman and Holly Reigner who worked tirelessly alongside the MACCS Planning Committee to put together a highly successful MACCS meeting.

The Mid-Atlantic ACC Chapters (Maryland, Virginia, DC, Delaware) held a highly engaging, educational and collaborative symposium in alignment with ACC's strategic vision. Filled with local and international experts, we hosted over 206 registrants from 13 states and six countries (UK, Columbia, El Salvador, India, Saudi Arabia, Serbia), across two days, making this virtual event the highest attended mid-Atlantic meeting ever. 

Engaging FITs, early to mid-career and even ACC Past President Dr. Mike Valentine-Virginia we collaborated with the British Cardiovascular Society (BCS) to include keynote speaker Dr. Martin Cowie, the European Society of Cardiology Chair of Digital Health Committee on AI/digital health transformation followed by a panel discussion with local experts. ACC President-Elect Dr. Ed Fry and BCS President Dr. John Greenwood offered remarks. A session on care disparities highlighted the work of the Maryland Chapter CVTeam (Jae Patton, CRNP, AACC and Angela Street, CRNP, AACC), the ACC Health Equity Task Force/Committee (Dr. Paul Douglass and Dr. Ranna Parekh) and a novel virtual reality app addressing implicit bias by DC FIT Dr. Aubrey Grant. The shock team from Virginia (Inova Fairfax) took center stage while the meeting closed with highlights of the 2021 ACC/AHA chest pain guideline with a keynote from chair Dr. Martha Gulati and local discussants. 

FIT FORUM had non-clinical competency education led by Doctors Shashank Sinha and Sammy Zakaria and was a highlight for FITs. Social media for both events generated over 1.7 million digital impressions from participants around the world including ACC BOG Chair Dr. Joe Marine and regional FITs.  

Many thanks to meeting chairs Doctors Andrew Choi (DC) and Victor Soukoulis (VA) for their leadership this year! And thanks also to the Maryland ACC Council and the MACCS Planning Committee for making this a great success. Congratulations go to Doctors Catherine Benett, Yuri Deychak and CVTeam members Jae Patton, Angela Street, and Matt Goldstein who received the MDACC Awards for their leadership and commitment to the Maryland Chapter.

President, Maryland Chapter ACC